Reelscene News- Casting call draws thousands for Will Ferrell, Adam McKay racing comedy movie.

A casting call for an unnamed Will Ferrell racing comedy drew several thousand aspiring actors to Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend. On Saturday July 16, approximately two thousand people showed up at the Clay-Chalkville High School to try out for the roles of two small boys ages 7 to 10 to play the sons of Will Ferrell's character 'Ricky Bobby'. While most of the applicants were from the North Alabama area people came from Atlanta, Georgia and even from as far away as North Carolina. Some people had arrived at the school at 8:00 a.m., two hours before the 10:00 a.m. call time.

Initially the applicants were being interviewed in the school auditorium after standing in a line which ran through the lobby. On arrival the parents were to fill out a form giving the vital statistics of their child. If they didn't have a recent photo to attach there were people taking Polaroid snapshots to included with the form. One of the question specifically asked about line dancing. A casting staff member came by and wrote with a big black marker the boys name and phone number on a blank sheet of paper for them to hold up during the interview. By noontime the line of people extended out the door and around the corner of the building and was so long (approaching a thousand feet) that the casting staff decided to let them all come in and sit in the school auditorium which filled to 90% of the seating capacity.

Inside, Shirley Crumley, one of the casting staff, spoke to the crowd and explained that casting director Allison Jones, producer David Householter and director Adam McKay were in the rooms back of the stage interviewing the boys. The director had changed the procedure from the original notice and had decided to interview every single boy. Mrs. Crumley said the role of the two boys were rather substantial and would be throughout the movie. They would be involved in filming for about three months starting in September. Part of the movie would be filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina and part in Talladega, Alabama. Since the movie would be during the school year the boys who are cast will have individual tutors on set to keep them up with their educational instruction. No decision on the roles would be made today. Any decision would be in about a month and will be for a callback for some additional interviews.

The story is about 'Ricky Bobby' a race car driver played by Will Ferrell and his relationship with his two sons. While 'Ricky' is away racing his sons lives with their grandparents.

For this audition samples of the script, 'sides', would be handed out so that the boys could learn a few lines to say during the audition. There ended up not being enough 'sides' to go around to every boy so as soon as a 'side' became available from a boy who was finished it would be given to those who were waiting. As the 'sides' were handed out some of the parents noticed that there were vulgarities that the boys had to say. Mrs. Crumley said that the roles of the boys were that their characters were mean, rotten little boys in the beginning but straighten up by the end of the movie. She then proceeded to repeat a few choice words of dialog from the script as to what they may be expected to say, not quite like a 'salty ol' sailor on shore leave' but some of the parents got their kids up and left the audition.

Mrs. Crumley said that the director was impressed with the talent of the boys he had interviewed so far (many had memorized their lines while waiting) but they had been real handsome and he was looking for boys whose appearance was not so picture perfect.

During the waiting the casting staff made several attempts to organize the kids in some type of order. What was finally decided on was for the boys to sit in the center section of seats and the parents sit on the side sections. From the audience seating the boys were to go on stage and sit in a group of thirty chairs and wait to be called to the casting director. As boys will be boys a certain rowdiness invariable developed so some of the parents who had managerial experience, like one dad who was a third base coach, volunteered for the rest of the audition to herd the boys while they moved form seat to seat and try to keep some semblance of control.

With the audition taking place during the lunch hour, hot dogs, snacks and canned drinks could be purchased in the lobby of the school. A parent could sit in line to hold a place for the interview while the boy went to eat. At one time the director Adam McKay was seen walking in the hallway.

More and more people kept coming and filling up the auditorium so at 3:30 p.m. Mrs. Crumley closed the audition to just those present to be interviewed. She said that they had promised the school that they would be out of the building by 5:00 p.m. The people who came later could still turn in a headshot at the door. At this point some boys who had arrived at 11:00 a.m. still hadn't been interviewed. Because of the wait some of the boys had gone cold on with lines and the their parents were rehearsing the dialog with them. The paperwork they were suppose to be holding were dropped by a few and had to be reunited with their owner. At 4:00 p.m. there were still 120 boys left to be interviewed so the casting staff tried to speed things up. At 5:00 p.m. it was obvious they the interviews would run past the deadline. At 6:30 p.m. there were still a good number of boys left so the interviews could have gone past 7:00 p.m.

Out of the approximately two thousand people that came on Saturday a conservative estimate would be that 400 boys applied for the two roles.

On Sunday July 17, the casting went a little different. This was more of a collection of headshots and a brief explanation of what the movie will require. The mostly adults were brought in to the auditorium in groups and sat in the center section of seats. Mrs. Crumley spoke with the group for about 30 minutes then they could leave. For the course of the day an estimate is that another two thousand people came.

Additional news sources have the title of "Talladega Nights" as one of the first titles of the script and could be used as a working title but it may be changed to something else for release. The film is expected to come out in the summer of 2006 and Adam McKay's next project is reported to be a movie version of the television series "Land Of The Lost".